Insurance companies issue policies to insure against different types of risk. Whether a particular insurance carrier has an interest in covering a particular type of risk is typically determined by a set of rules that are applied based upon that carrier's historical underwriting experience. Insurance agencies generally have multiple contracts with different insurance carriers and act as an agent for the end consumer or business. Based upon the industry and type of risk, the agent makes a determination as to which of their insurance carriers have an appetite to write insurance for the risk.
Historically insurance companies provide the agents with documentation based upon geographic location and the U.S. Government OSHA Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) coding system as to what types of businesses they are interested in writing. When an application for insurance is completed, the agent needs to make a determination as to which carrier(s) they will send the application. Typically, this determination is made by referring to the carriers' documentation or from personal knowledge. Without accurate documentation and/or personal knowledge, an application may be rejected as an inappropriate submission by the insurance carrier, thereby delaying the ability of the agent to provide coverage to the business.